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When in doubt, don’t floor it

Posted by The Technocrat | Filed under Home & Auto

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Here’s a tip I got from Skip Barber Racing School, relating to when you’re driving a stick-shift and going out of control. In racing you drive with both feet, the left does the clutch and brake, and the right does the gas.

• ‘When in doubt, both feet out’
• What this means is that if you don’t know what the car’s doing, don’t do anything. Don’t hit the brakes, and definitely don’t hit the gas (as shown in the first car in the clip). This keeps the car balanced, and reduces the risk of making a bad situation worse, DO what you can with small inputs to the steering wheel and try to recover.
• ‘When in a spin, both feet in’
• This is an emergency measure when you’re definitely beyond the point of salvaging the situation. Put the clutch and brake to the floor and hold on. This will definitely not stop the spin, but since it’s too late anyway, you’ll slide in a predictable direction, and hopefully the ABS system will be going crazy trying to help you stop. This also keeps you from over-correcting and ‘hooking’ (fishtailing, then spinning) into oncoming traffic, etc.

It’s hard to prescribe what to do when driving on pure ice like this. The best advice would be to not go out until the plow trucks have had a chance to do their job. If you do have to go out, these two things might keep you from making a bad situation worse, as demonstrated by the person who chose to lay on the gas in the first car. Unpredictable, and decidedly worse than if they would have just locked the brakes and taken the initial hit.

Note: there is a car that later does this. Although they are sliding directly sideways and can’t do anything about it, by sticking with it they took the least abuse from the bad situation they were in.

Edit: I’d also like to point out that the car control techniques taught at Skip Barber Driving/Racing School have to date kept me out of three major accidents, by making it a reflex to avoid other drivers who were driving recklessly, both in weather dry and snowy.  I highly recommend them.  They’re expensive, but in premiums and deductibles alone, the cost paid off several times over in my case.  (and it’s fun)

Comments (1) | January 19th, 2007

One Response to “When in doubt, don’t floor it”

1. Q Says:
   January 31, 2007 at 3:41 pm

   WOW… Nice icey driving!!!